1/14/13

Krueger: "Majority Coalition" a 2009 Re-Run

In an email blast, State Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat whose habit of nottalking down to her constituents I find refreshing, doubted that the new power-sharing "majority coalition" in the New York State Senate could deliver a progressive agenda.

Republican Senators Dean Skelos, Tom Libous and others have allied with the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), made up of Senators Jeffrey Klein, Malcolm Smith, Diane Savino, David Valesky and David Carlucci.

The IDC has a list of legislation -- supported by the real Democratic Conference -- they hope the “bipartisan” coalition will pass.

Krueger questioned why the IDC would expect to pass these bills with Republicans controlling the Senate -- the same Republicans who have, for decades, done everything they could to defeat the IDC's agenda.

The 58% of New York voters who thought they had elected a Democratic majority to the State Senate must hold the IDC as accountable as it would a unified Democratic majority, Krueger said, for stronger gun laws, a minimum wage increase, real public campaign finance reform, the Reproductive Health Act, the New York State DREAM Act, stop-and-frisk reform, real rent reform, full funding of education aid, and relief for struggling local governments.

Senator Klein and the IDC argue that the Republican alliance is necessary due to Albany's history of “dysfunctional” Democratic leadership, Krueger said. But in 2009, when dysfunction peaked in the State Senate, Skelos, Libous, Klein and Smith were the leadership.

The Republican instigators of the 2009 coup -- and the weak Democrats
who couldn't stop it -- are now in the driver’s seat, Krueger said.

Krueger sees her job as making sure the alliance doesn't ram through flaccid "one house" legislation that accomplishes nothing, and call it "progress".